Last week a friend and I travelled to Oklahoma to spend a few days in spiritual retreat with the monks atOur Lady of Clear Creek . He took his three Son , and I took three of mine .
Clear Creek Abbey is a traditional monastery where the brothers live by the rule of St. Benedict and practice “ ora et labora ” ( appeal and work ) as their spiritual discipline . We were capable to link up them to pray the Hours , which is an ancient recitation of joining together in entreaty through the Clarence Day .
This is the agenda the monks follow :
Rise : 4:50 AMMatins : 5:15Lauds : 6:15Low Mass : 6:50Prime & Breakfast : 8:00Lectio Divina : 9:00Terce , High Mass : 10:00Study or Work : 11:15Sext & Lunch : 12:50 PMRecreation : 2:00None : 2:35Manual travail : 3:00Vespers : 6:00Silent Prayer : 6:30Lectio Divina or Conference : 7:00 Dinner : 7:30Compline : 8:25 ( 8:35 in the Church )
They chanted the Psalms in their prayers , which was hauntingly beautiful , specially during the Vespers services where a Brother accompanied the tattle on the electric organ .
The monastery was beautiful , smooth and holy , with a library of books and a lot of homegrown food . We were able to wait on in the orchard break up apples , and I was also able to expend some time talking agriculture with a Brother who was in charge of their gravid vegetable garden . I bring him some Seminole pumpkins so he could try out them and keep the seminal fluid – maybe they ’ll be able to add them to their garden next year .
The discipline , holiness and hospitality of the blood brother was wonderful . If you get a chance to call in , I advocate it . We were blessed .
After our time in Oklahoma , we drop a few days in Arkansas , hike up , search a cave and enjoying the stunner of nature .
When I got home , I find some severely Brobdingnagian cucuzza squash in the garden which I hope are still good to eat ! There was some wind and rain while we were endure and some of the Grocery Rows are impassible due to Jerusalem artichoke plant and Florida Cranberry blowing down into the pathways . This even I hope to get out there with some stakes and tie them back up – and to do some pruning of the yield trees . We ’ve had a lot of rain and the overgrowth is incredible .
This evening we also have a live Zoom callover in our Skool communitywhere I ’ll be discuss if chicken are worth it . See you there .
